TNA activist in Ampaa'rai abducted, tortured after meeting against land grab
[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 May 2013, 23:33 GMT]
An armed squad that came in a white van on Tuesday abducted a 68-year-old activist, Thangathurai Veluppillai, a supporter of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Ampaa'rai district. The victim was blindfolded while he was at Kalmunai public market and was taken away by the squad that tortured him to obtain the names of the TNA activists in Ampaa'rai district. The abduction comes a few days after the intelligence of the occupying SL military ‘investigated’ him following a meeting against the land grab by the SL military in his division. After 3 days of interrogations in Batticaloa, Mr Thangathurai was taken back to Kalmunai and released there, the sources further said.
Informed civil sources in Ampaa'rai told TamilNet that the abducted victim, who hails from Malvaththai in Chamman-thu'rai division of Ampaarai district, was taken to Batticaloa for interrogation.
The Eezham Tamils at Malvaththai have been demanding their own Tamil division as they have been unable to expect justice from the hostile Sinhala officials who were scheming demographic changes.
TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathiraja attended a meeting at Malvaththai on 23 April following the request from the villagers after reports that 70 acres of land, initially earmarked for a radio station in the Chammaan-thu’rai DS division of the Ampaar’ai district is being segmented for the construction of a Sri Lankan military cantonment.
After the meeting, the SL military intelligence, which had been threatening the villagers not to complain against the land grab, obtained the names of the organisers of the meeting.
The latest abduction is an attempt to trace all the links of the TNA in order to suppress the villagers from protesting against the seizure of their lands and the militarisation of their village.
Genocidal military gets into white garb to observe Vesak in Jaffna
[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 May 2013, 22:11 GMT]The commander of the occupying SL military in Jaffna, Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, together with all of his senior officers and a section of soldiers, observed a ‘Sil’ campaign on Thursday, according to a news release by the SL military in Jaffna. At the event, the SL commander Hathurusinghe and his personnel were all clad in white. In contrast, the occupying SL commander and his officers have been wearing military uniform while entering Hindu temples, an act considered as showing disrespect to the deities and as desecrating the shrines, observers in Jaffna commented. One of the topics discussed by the Buddhist clergy and the academics at the Buddhist religious event on Thursday was ‘music therapy as a remedy to youth unrest’, the news release by the SL military further revealed.
Hathurusinghe performing Buddhist religious ritual at the Sil campaign on Thursday
Hathurusinghe in half uniform, performing rituals in May 2011 at the Changkaanai Murukamoorthi temple, the priest of which was allegedly killed by SL military intelligence
Hathurusinghe [left] with his officers and soldiers at Sil campaign on Thursday
SLA soldiers at the prayer show at the Hindu temple of Changkaanai Murukamoorthi in May 2011
Together with Buddhist monks, Professor Gnanadasa Perera, a psychologist from the department of Pali and Buddhist Studies at the University of Sri Jayewardnepura and Dr. Gamini Ratna Sri from the same university took part in delivering lectures to the SL military in Jaffna.
All together 2,000 military personnel took part in the Sil campaign.
SLA soldiers at Buddhist prayers on Thursday
Hathurusinghe behind the visitng Buddhist monk to Vihara in Jaffna on Thursday
